Two of Kenya’s athletes were banned by the country’s athletics governing body on Friday after both of them failed drugs tests.
The athletes in question are 800 metre runner Josephine Jepkoech Jepkorir and road runner Agatha Jeruto Kimaswai, who were tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid Norandrosterone.
Jepkorir faces two years away from athleteics, with Athletics Kenya stating that “Owing to the period when the infraction was registered a two-year sanction has been imposed on the athlete effective from March 15, 2015 and will end on March 14, 2017,”. Kimaswai meanwhile, has recieved a four year ban, which “has been imposed on the athlete effective May 20, 2015 and will end on May 19, 2019,” as stated by Athletics Kenya
The incident comes just over five weeks after 400 metre runner Joyce Zakary and 400 metre hurdler Francisca Koki Manunga failed doping tests and were subsequently removed from the IAAF World Championships in August.
Prior to this year’s World Championships German TV company ARD and British newspaper Sunday Times had revealed suspicious blood test results from 800 athletes, 77 of which were Kenyans.
Kimaswai and Jepkorir will now be added to a list of 33 other Kenyan athletes who have been caught doping in the past three years, leaving more unwanted problems for Kenya’s relatively new anti-doping agency.
